The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission and PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency scientists from the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) teams published a new annual report "Trends in Global CO2 Emissions”.

This year edition concludes that in 2015, global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes have stalled, confirming the slowdown trend observed since 2012.

In 2015, two-thirds of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industrial processes were generated in China (with 29% share in the global total), the United States (14%), the European Union (EU-28) (10%), India (7%), the Russian Federation (5%) and Japan (3.5%).

For the first time, China effectively curbed its emissions, reducing them by 0.7% compared to 2014. Also emissions in the Russian Federation, the US and Japan decreased by 3.4%, 2.6% and 2.2% respectively. India’s emission growth continued, with 5.1% increase in 2015.

In the EU there was an increase of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industrial processes by ca. 1.3%, after four years of significantly decreasing annual emissions. It can be explained by colder winter in 2015 compared to 2014 and an increase of gas consumption, which is used mainly for heating. At the same time, the share of renewable electricity, mainly hydro, wind and solar power is increasing in Europe (29%, which is an increase by 4.4% in comparison to 2014), and there is a reduction by 1.8% of coal consumption registered.